Review of the year: March

Good Samaritans were shocked when their efforts to help a damsel in distress led to the discovery of a cannabis factory in Hanworth

March

A Warfield family were left devastated after their beloved pet cat was shot with an air rifle, leaving him with injuries so severe he had to be put down.

Owner Gary Avis, of Derby Vale, warned other pet owners to keep a close eye on their animals in case the culprit stuck again.

Gary’s ginger tabby JJ suffered a shattered spine after being shot.

Gary returned home expecting his usual welcome from his pets, but only one cat, JJ’s brother Whisky, came to greet him.

He then found JJ, who he was looking after for his seriously ill aunt, slumped in the garden hardly able to move.

A number of restaurants and shops in a rundown precinct closed doors for good after Bracknell Forest Council demanded keys to the properties.

Shocked Indian restaurant owner Steve Hussain said he would be forced to hand over A Passage to India to bailiffs – but still had no idea how much compensation he would get.

The council wrote to the 19 businesses in Market Street, including hairdressers Figaro’s and the London Hair Salon, telling them they must leave to make way for the town centre regeneration.

But the eviction can out of the blue for some traders.

In March a Sandhurst family were looking to take their battle to put a headstone on their child’s grave to the European Court of Human Rights.

Jimmy and Tina Hedges, from Humber Way, were thinking about taking their dispute with the Diocese of Oxford further in a bid to keep the headstone on the grave of their son James, known as Jimmy

The boy, who died of leukaemia in 2004 aged seven, is buried at St Michael’s Church in Lower Church Road, where officials have ordered a 4ft high heart-shaped headstone be removed because it was placed there without permission and is, they say, “disproportionate”.

Good Samaritans were shocked when their efforts to help a damsel in distress led to the discovery of a cannabis factory in Hanworth.

The find came when a group of good neighbours stepped in to help a woman who had locked herself out of her home in Naseby.

The sympathetic residents lent the woman, who spoke no English and is thought to be Vietnamese, a jacket to keep her warm while they called the emergency services to help her get back inside her house.

The situation became more grave when neighbours noticed a burning smell coming from the home and it transpired the woman had left food cooking in the oven.

The woman fled, with the neighbour's jacket, when police were called to attend the scene.

Police found between 200 and 300 cannabis plants, as well as a large amount of cash, in the property.